Priority System
The City of Thompson snow-clearing system prioritizes downtown roads and main neighbourhood arteries that all residents use, which are critical for ensuring emergency responders can move around the city efficiently.
Priority 1 roads, shown in red on the map, include Thompson Drive, Cree Road, Princeton Drive and Westwood Drive, as well as access points for the RCMP detachment, the fire hall, Thompson General Hospital, and main artery sidewalks.
Priority 2 streets are additional main roads, shown in green on the map.
Priority 3 areas include residential streets and sidewalks and commercial areas.
When snowstorms are continuous or closely follow one another, snow-clearing crews repeat Priority 1 and 2 areas before moving to Priority 3 roads. Sometimes,, the priority system is altered to ensure all roads receive some degree of snow-clearing.
Windrows and Driveway Clearing
Snow clearing using a grader creates windrows: long piles of broken, compact snow that can be difficult to move by hand. This is a normal part of the road-clearing process.
In residential areas, the City of Thompson clears these windrows from driveways as part of its snow-clearing services.
During a normal snowfall, there is usually a few minutes of delay between when the grader creates a windrow and when the loader can come clear it. Loaders move and clear snow slower than graders move through the streets. During heavier snowfalls, grader operators are instructed to move as quickly as possible to ensure emergency services can travel throughout the city. As a result, there may be a longer delay before windrows are cleared.
Windrows can't be cleared from driveways if vehicles are too close to the end of the driveway, as the risk of damaging the vehicles is too high. Vehicles must be parked as far up driveways as possible to enable windrow clearing.
